MoonAurora Chronicles Book 1: Writer of Fate
by Tabitha of MoonAurora
Summary: Tabitha is a teenager with extraordinary powers. The only problem is, she doesn't know she has them. And if she is the only one with these powers who will teach her to use them? Not and Inheritance fic. This is a personal novel soon to be published. R
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The cat paced back and forth across the solid rock surface. Beside him was the hollow of the stone which he had padded to use as a nest. He was waiting. For what, he did not know but he had a feeling something would happen. There was a tingling that ran through the fur and feathers on his body. His paws were sore from his long journey up the narrow pass so he laid on the cool rock. His wings folded tightly against his sides. He stared thoughtfully into the distance not focusing on what was in front of him, but rather, what was appearing in his mind's eye.

To his surprise another cat was beginning to appear, surrounded by an aura of what would seem to be light although at the same time it seemed to be darkness. He knew from her scent that she was female. The outline of her grew more constant and steady until it filled entirely with her color and shape. Her fur was a rich blue, black, not like the brown black that shown brown in light but a true jet black. Her eyes were the same color as his, a deep, but bright, green, and her wings were covered in ivory feathers. He knew her upon sight though it had been years since he'd last seen her. She was his mother, who had died protecting him.

Out of respect, he bowed his head knowing that she was now an Ancestor. The lights that shimmered through her deep fur seemed to add light to the stone crevice where he sheltered. The tree beside his nest seemed to lean toward her as though asking for added warmth in the chill of the early spring night. He noticed, now, that when he stood, he was a paw's width taller than her and at least twice her width across the head and middle.

His mother stepped forward and touched her nose to his brow leaving a tingling sensation where her muzzle made of light would have touched had she been made of real substance. He realized with sadness that though she was there now he could not express his happiness at seeing her through contact.

"Melcior," the onyx cat's voice did not make its way from her mouth, but seemed to stem from the sounds of the night around her as though she was speaking from thousands of different musical instruments. It came to him on the wind and in the song of a settling bird and then again through the sound of the rocks as they tumbled, their noise reverberating down the narrow rocky passage.

"Mira," he replied with the word in his tongue for mother.

"It has been long, since you have seen me and equally long that I have missed my only kit," his mother replied, "But I have watched you as you became ambassador and as you followed the path that you destiny guides you to follow. You have not strayed nor have you faltered or questioned the weight of the world that has been thrust upon your shoulders."

At this he gazed at her in confusion wondering what she meant.

"I see you've not yet found your way to the prophecy," The ebony pause for a moment considering her son before continuing in a tone more serious than is normally ever used between mother and child, "Pain is something that all of us must feel. It is either physical or emotional. Sometimes it is both. You will see that in the days, weeks, months, and years to come that many collectively will feel the pain of war. It has already begun; the seeds of civil war have been planted and there is not stopping the conflict. An opposition is forming and they have sources that we have yet to see. You have one thing they do not. A Writer, a Writer of Fate. Find it and you are at an advantage. Corrupt it and you will find an enemy. It will come, you will seek, and you will find."

"Thank you," Melcior had looked down at the stones under his paws, but when he returned his gaze to the open area where his mother had stood, there was only empty air.

He turned about an stared out over the valley beneath the

Tabitha leaned heavily against the wall outside the high school principles office. She had not meant to lose her temper. She didn't know why she couldn't control herself this time. Kate had taunted her about every part of her life and yet this time she had snapped. She sighed and sat down on a chair as she heard Mr. Carrons raise his voice knowing she would be there for a very long time.

It was another hour before Tabitha was allowed in the office and the previous offending student, left looking rather depressed. She groaned, got up out of the chair and walked through the door into the office. She looked around and saw that the office had not changed much since the last principal had left the year previously. There was a new nameplate on the desk denoting the man behind it as Mr. Nicholas Carrons, and a picture of his family sitting on one of the filing cabinets in the room.

Tabitha thought now that she would have given anything not to live in America right now. She missed Scotland, with its castles and lakes and epic history. It had always come into her mind that she thought she had been born several centuries too late. Even so, she dealt with being an American as well as she could.

"Miss McKnight," Mr. Carrons began, breaking into her reverie, "sit."

Tabitha did as instructed.

"It has come to my attention that you started a loud and disruptive argument with Miss Adley today between lunch period and PE. Is this true?" he asked in the usual condescendingly patient voice principals had been known to use.

"Yes," she replied with a sigh.

"Do you have an excuse for doing so?"

"Yes," She answered again.

"Would you like to provide me with that excuse?"

"Not really," she replied.

"Would you care to explain why you are using that insolent tone?"

"Not really"

"Miss McKnight, if that is the case then you can join your classmates in detention later today. Two hours after school." Mr. Carrons dismissed her with that.

Tabitha walked from the office feeling more irritated than she had when she went into it. She had plans that she was going to have to cancel now. She slowly made her way to her locker and pulled out the book she needed for the last class of the day also producing the late slip she'd need to get into class without more trouble.

She thought back to the argument she'd had with Kate. Kate had been making her way slowly down the hall with her boyfriend occasionally kissing him. Tabitha disliked PDA and had rolled her eyes at them. Though she couldn't help but look at the boy Kate was with because though she didn't like to go along with the crowd, he was admittedly the best-looking boy in the school. He had light brown hair and grayish hazel eyes that sometime even turned green if he wore the right color. Unfortunately one of Kate's friends had noticed Tabitha's attention and pointed it out to Kate. Kate had stopped walking and said loudly enough that Tabitha could hear her, "Watch out James, you have a bitch on your line,"

She'd been used to these comments so she didn't react except to turn red when James had caught her gaze for a moment. Nate, her best friend, had arrived then and put a hand on her shoulder.

Kate had then commented, "Oh wait, I forgot she liked to sample everything that comes in her direction. No I made a mistake, her mother was the whore."

That was when she had snapped. So many people made comments about her mother and her lack of ever having a husband. It was widely known that most people did not get into private school with such a heritage. That meant that she was a good target for any kind of snide comments. Usually they were not direct remarks about her mother though. She hated here people trash-talk her mother. So her temper had broken and now she was late for class.

Tabitha opened the classroom door and handed the late slip to the teacher before taking her seat. She opened her western heritage book to the page indicated on the chalk board and began to read. The clock ticked with a constant rhythm making her feel tired and impatient. Her thoughts drifted to the plans she'd made. Out of the money she'd earned from her job, she'd paid a rental fee for a horse trailer and two horses from the stable she'd earned the money from in the first place. She and her mother were planning to ride the horses on a trail-ride through the mountains over the weekend and then drive the horses back home on Monday.

Spending time together was not something they usually got to do, not since her mother had enrolled her in private school when they got to America. Now, Tabitha's mother had to work twice as hard to pay for everything, thus they lived in a five room house with an attic and unfinished basement. While they'd had money before they'd had to move it had quickly shrunk to almost nothing. When her mother wasn't working, she was sleeping, or Tabitha was working. This was one of the few weekends she'd have a chance to spend with her mother, and she'd blown the first day of it.

Sighing, she turned her head to look at Nate who was asleep on his desk. A grin flitted across his face for a moment and then vanished again. She too smiled and then pulled the eraser off of her pencil and flicked it across the gap between the desks and right into his closed right eye. He jolted awake and glared at her. She grinned mischievously and returned her attention to the teacher.

The end period bell rang soon after that and most of the class rushed from their seats. Tabitha was about to leave talking amiably with Nate when the teacher called out their names. She turned and made her way toward the desk at the front of the room curious as to what this might be.

"Mr. Monroe, do not think I didn't notice you sleeping in my class. Detention afterschool today, two hours, and I suggest you should get more sleep at night because otherwise we're going to be spending a lot of time together," Mrs. Alinton dictated, "You may go; I must speak to Miss McKnight privately."

Tabitha was intrigued by this and entirely unsure of what might be going on. She saw Nate cast her a questioning glance and only because she knew he knew her was he able to notice the minuscule shrug she gave him. He left quickly but she had the sneaking suspicion he was waiting for her just outside the door.

"Mrs. Alinton, I have detention and I'd rather not be late for it. I don't want to…"

"You're not going to be late for detention," the teacher replied, "Now I wanted to offer you an excellent opportunity. This fall the school is offering an exchange program for students who do well in school. The student would attend school in a foreign country and would return home after two weeks."

Tabitha's attention was focused on her teacher now more than she ever had been. Western Heritage was not her favorite subject.

"I thought you might want a chance to study abroad for a short while in Africa. Normally we don't send people to Africa but you seem to be showing that you have a decent understanding of what we are teaching you, so we figure you could help the students there learn what you have."

Tabitha blinked, not knowing what to say to her teacher. She wondered why on Earth the teacher for one of the classes she so clearly paid little attention to had chosen her to represent her school in Africa and was giving her such a vote of confidence.

"I'm honored," Tabitha replied stoically but inside her excitement was growing, "Thank you." She added and then dismissed herself from the classroom.

Tabitha made her way down the street from the bus stop, Nate by her side for a short while.

"She really thought you'd make a good student ambassador?" Nate asked surprised.

"I don't know why she would, but I don't suppose I can refuse. It's an amazing opportunity. I'd love to do it but…" her voice trailed off and Nate put a hand on her shoulder to stop her.

"You're not actually thinking of declining the offer are you? It's not for a couple of weeks and you never know when another opportunity like this could come along," Nate looked astounded.

"I know it's not bloody likely another opportunity like this will come along," Tabitha paused as a small grin of amusement crossed Nate's face at her use of the British curse, "I just don't know. I mean I moved all the way from Scotland just last year and I'm still getting used to being here. I don't know how a trip to Africa would affect that."

"What are you really worried about Tabitha; that is the lamest excuse I've heard out of you in a long time."

"I so rarely get to see my mother and now she has an entire weekend off. I just think that telling her on her weekend off that I want to go to Africa in a couples weeks for a couple weeks, would ruin her weekend. I don't want her to feel like I never want to see her again."

"Why on Earth would your mother think that?"

"I don't know," Tabitha replied hopelessly.

They walked in silence for a couple more blocks and then Nate stopped her.

"Hey, if you need to talk some more, just call me tonight," he pulled her into a tight hug and she returned the favor, "I still stick by what I said, don't pass this up."

Tabitha waved as he reached his door and then continued down the sidewalk. Her thoughts now became her own. She wasn't sure what to think of the offer in all honesty. It seemed so sudden and abrupt and though the thought that her school thought she was worth something she was suspicious that their reasons were not quite as pure as they originally seemed in all her excitement. All the same she resolved to ask her mother what she thought of the offer when she got home.

Tabitha had walked up to the door of the porch expecting it to be closed and locked so she had retrieved the spare key from inside he bush where it was kept in a small fixed box. To her surprise the inside door was swung wide open indicating that her mother was home early. She pulled on the latch of the door and entered dropping her backpack and shoes on the floor just inside the door.

Something about the situation didn't seem right. Tabitha normally didn't base her decisions on premonition-like thoughts but for once she did so her mind was ready for anything. She pulled an umbrella from the rack beside the door and slid through the foyer into the main central living space. To her right was the TV set on to MSNBC and to her left was her mother sitting at the kitchen table, her head in one hand and her other holding what appeared to be a letter.

Tabitha quickly made her way to her, knowing something was definitely wrong now. She reached forward and touched her shoulder. It seemed her mother had not known she was home despite the noise she'd made on her way in. She jumped and turned toward Tabitha revealing a tear-stained face. Immediately Tabitha reached for a chair and sat down, grabbing her hands.

"What happened?" she questioned nervously.

"You're Grandfather died," her mother explained her voice tight and strained, "Last night after having been recently diagnosed with cancer."

Tabitha was not sure what to say; she knew her mother had been close to the man but she'd never known him very well.

"I'm really sorry Mom. I…" Tabitha consoled trying to calm her mother for she'd never seen her in such as state but she was unable to finish for she'd seen something rather odd. Her mother's fingers had briefly seemed to have a light surrounding them. Tabitha corrected her mind telling herself it was a trick of the light.

"Tabitha…" her mother spoke in a voice that quavered slightly from suppressed sobs, "I know you are just settling in here… but we have to return to Scotland… in a few days."

Despite her slight sadness at the death of her Grandfather she couldn't help but feel a sense of elation flooding through her body. Returning to Scotland seemed such a wonderful prospect. Still the trip would be dampened greatly and their stay indefinite. For a moment though she didn't know why she seemed almost sad that they would have to leave their American home, but then that left her mind and she realized that the only thing she would actually miss would be Nate.

"I'm fine with whatever accommodations need to be made," Tabitha replied to her mother.

"Tabitha, thank you."

Tabitha attended school that next day in a slightly less than cheerful mood. She'd found that now she'd digested the news her Grandfather had died, she'd started to remember all the times they'd had together up until the last year before they'd left. She yelled at him for dredging up his aversion to his daughter's husbandless young pregnancy many years before and they'd become estranged. She wondered, now, if he knew she'd not meant that she'd hated him.

Tabitha felt a hand grasped tightly over her shoulder, and she turned to see Nate standing beside her looking questioning. She smiled faintly before looking down at her feet, tears in her eyes.

"What is it Tabitha?" he seemed genuinely concerned now not that he had ever not been sincere.

"My g-grandfather d-died," she replied the tears in her eyes now falling freely as she dissolved into sobs.

Tabitha felt Nate's arms encircle her and it occurred to her that he was very much like a brother and how amazing it was that they were completely comfortable doing such things to each other while most other people would shy away from such contact. She cried into his shoulder for several moments eventually pulling herself away from him and wiping the tears from her eyes.

"Thank you." She said simply before continuing down the hall and opening her locker to retrieve her books for her class.

The rest of the day was rather melancholy for her and she would occasionally have another resurgence of memories that would force her to make her way to the bathroom to gain control of herself again. In all honesty she still did not understand her sadness though she knew it was there.

Tabitha carried her mother's suitcase through the open door. The trunk of the station wagon was open to reveal some essentials that had already been packed in preparation for their journey. She gazed at the car wondering in its seemingly invisible vestibules of strength. The exterior appeared as though it had once been meant to be blue, but now it was faded and coat with and almost solid layer of dirt and rust. The wood paneling on the sides had partially broken until it looked like it had been beaten with a baseball bat. She shook her head, almost laughing as the sight and returned to the house to retrieve her books.

She just barely made out the door with her first box of books it was so heavy. Several of her novels slid off the top and made a sort of Hansel and Gretel like trail from her room to the car. Once everything they needed had been strategically placed in the trunk of the car, her mother climbed into the driver's seat and turned the AC on full blast. Tabitha joined her in the passenger seat. Her mother turned the key and they pulled away from the curb and out into the street.

The airport was crowded and packed tightly with passengers of all nationalities. Languages flew flippantly through the air as though nothing and no one really cared about the nonsensical beauty of it all. Tabitha looked around, only having been to the airport a few times in her life. She carried two overnight bags with her and her mother pushed a cart onto which they had loaded the rest of their luggage. Tabitha placed the two overnight bags on the scanner and then made her way through the metal detector. To her relief the thing didn't go off and she released her breath. She knew it had no reason to, but all the same, she worried it would.

They boarded the plane quickly and sat in the middle class carriage. Tabitha turned her gaze to the window and stared down at the hot black tarmac. The other passengers were boarding and filing into their prospective seats. A fat man who smelled strongly of alcohol sat down in the seat beside her mother and began to snore almost immediately. The smell he gave off quickly permeated through the air of the compartment. Tabitha wrinkled her nose and pulled her copy of _Once and Future King_ from her bag and buried her nose in it attempting to make the smell go away by vanishing into her book world.

The flight was a long one, and Tabitha gave up in her attempts to make the smell go away and concentrated on ignoring it to the extent of her ability. She watched the ocean flitting smoothly by under the plane, a vast expanse of teal, its depths truly unknown to the knowledge of mankind. She smiled and breathed a sigh as she saw a small group of boats down on the water and wondered what the people aboard them were thinking. As the journey came to a close, the sun had disappeared under the western horizon and the ocean was lit by the light of the moon. Ahead was the coast of the British Isles lit only by the lights of the fishing towns and by the lights of small cities. She could see the lights of Ireland slightly to her right and knew they were approaching Scotland directly. Their plane landed a small while later at an airport in Glasgow. Tabitha stepped fluidly off the plane and confidently pulled their luggage from the conveyor belt that held it.

The next trip was a train ride to a coastal community on the Eastern side of the country. It was called Stonehaven and her mother had grown up there. It was only a few miles south of Aberdeen. As they exited the train and picked up a rental car, it began to drizzle making the cool air unpleasant. To Tabitha it reminded her, inexorably, that she was home. They drove a good few miles and Tabitha's focus turned to the small cairns placed by the road and the sheep and horses that wandered through the pastures adjacent to it.

She looked up as they turned onto the familiar lane that lead them to a thin, two-story house. She saw that over the year they'd been gone, the house had lost a bit more of its mortar and it seemed the roof was partially in need of replacing. Tabitha smiled in her excitement and then placed her hand on the door handle. With a twist of her wrist and a small push, the door swung inward to reveal the small, aged entryway.

The house contained four rooms and had an outhouse. On the first floor, was the entryway into the house with a stone and wooden divider between the kitchen and the entrance. Also on the first floor was the living room, or as her grandparents liked to call it, the parlor, which contained a small table where meals were eaten. Upstairs, there were two bedrooms. One, she and her mother shared when they came to visit and the other was the room that belonged to her grandparents. Tabitha looked around. It did not appear that her grandmother had recently done the usual amount of cleaning that was commonly found around the cottage. There was dust around and she saw that some books lay in no particular order around the room. Actually, it did not appear that anyone was home. Tabitha watched her mother set down her suitcase and take off her rain jacket, hanging it on the hat stand by the door. The woman who appeared like and older apparition of herself walked into the house, glancing in each section of the downstairs.

Tabitha set her own things down but did not continue farther inside. She left her jacket draped around her shoulders and walked with deft curious steps back out into the yard. The car that they'd left there was still in its place as was the car of her grandmother's. Her feet made small depressions in the wet grass as she walked through the yard. It seemed odd that there would be no one here. Her grandmother was not well and would not have walked far. If that was the case then she definitely should be there. Yet, for all the more looking Tabitha did on that property, the more likely it seemed she wasn't. Her foot caught on something hard. She bent down to the ground, using the light from the uncovered windows to guide her gaze. It took everything in her head not to scream as her eyes caught the lifeless form of her mother's unusually long-lived terrier, Toodles. His creamy brown fur was barely noticeable or distinguishable among the tall grass that was on the property. She bent down. He was lying on the ground, slightly bloated, and she wondered what would happen if she picked him up and took him back to the house. In a split second decision, she scooped him up and carried him back to the cottage.

Her mother was sitting at the small table in the "parlor". Her dark hair was held back by the hand placed on her forehead and the other hand was wrapped around a mug of what Tabitha could only assume was tea. It was steaming, releasing warm vapor into the air around her but she seemed oblivious to it. Tabitha walked up to her and reached out one arm to touch her shoulder. Her mother jumped, slopping a bit of the neglected tea onto the table and looked up. A hand drifted in a dreamlike sequence to her mouth. Her eyes clouded with more pain than Tabitha had noticed present in them previously that day and almost seemed to have gone out with the presences of the dead dog. She was considering what would have happened had she not brought the dog in at all and just left him out by the tool shed to rot, but the decided that it would have been crueler to do so.

Tabitha took the dog's body over to the couch and laid him down on the worn and broken down cushions. Her mother followed her.

"I found him out behind the house," Tabitha commented as though answering a question that had not been conceived yet.

She stared at the dog she'd known her whole life. She was fifteen now. She'd known him for fifteen years. Now Toodles was dead. Her Grandfather was dead and it seemed as though her grandmother had picked up and left, though to where she didn't know. Neither did her mother or probably anybody else. It seemed the little old woman had vanished rather effectively. She glanced at her mother. The woman's hands were trembling and now she knew she was seeing something. In the din of the room, her mother losing control, there was a light that began to fill the space. A light that didn't come from anything or anyone, even remotely normal. Tabitha stared at her mother in wonder. She could hear a crackling and just on a whim, glanced at her mother's hands. Little tiny strands of lightning seemed to be jumping between her fingers. The light she'd seen a few days previously was even more powerful than it had been then and yet Tabitha was sure she must be so tired that her eyes were playing tricks on her.

Tabitha glanced at the flickering light source in stunned disbelief and her mother suddenly looked down and closed her hands into fists. The lightning stopped and suddenly the blue light that had bathed the room, vanished. She glanced up at her mother, a question held tentatively in her eyes. She didn't want to push her in the state that she was in; she wanted to remain kind and caring toward her mother rather than to appear young and greedy for answers. It had become quite clear to her that after a few days, the death did not affect her as much.

"I'll explain, Tabitha, someday soon," her mother paused, "but not know."

"I… Mom," Tabitha stopped talking, letting her voice trail off into silence, "Good night." Was all she added before she began to climb the steep stairs to the upstairs bedrooms.

The days past quickly, sweeping on like a river during a flood. They pushed on life and made everything seem frenzied and out of sorts. Tabitha sat on the front steps of the small coffee shop in the town enjoying the glow of the rare pleasantry that was the sun. A few secondary school students passed by her, probably in their second or last year of required schooling. That meant that they were about her age. It was a fact that constantly weighed on her. She wondered why they had had to leave the British Isles before her schooling was done. It would have been so much easier just to stay and have her finish school before they left. She would be sixteen the next year, old enough to finish school and then she could have gone to college in the states.

A few of the kids that passed, she recognized. There was a summer, not too far in the past, when she spent a month with her grandparents in Stonehaven. During that time, she had made some friends but none had kept in contact with her. She knew very few people ever e-mailed anymore but she hated texting and found herself missing vowels in online instructions terribly.

"Tabby?"

A familiar voice brought her gaze away from the people traveling along the street before her, to the left. A girl stood, bag of books over her shoulder, and looked of surprise and delight on her face.

"Anna!" Tabitha replied.

She and Anna had been friend since they could barely walk. Their mother's were five years apart in age but had always been best friends. They had grown up in Stonehaven and then their jobs and paths crossed when they both moved into a town near Glasgow. Thusly, Tabitha and Anna had become the best of friends. She and Anna had kept in contact when she moved but Tabitha hadn't heard from her for a while. The red head joined her on the steps in a whirlwind of excited movement.

"I'm so glad you're here but you could have told me you were coming," Anna gave her a hug and then let her go.

"I only just found out I was coming two days before I came," Tabitha replied with a smile at her friend, "I didn't know you were in Stonehaven now anyway. When did you move?"

"I didn't tell you?!" Anna looked aghast at herself and for the first time in the last two weeks she almost laughed.

"No. What didn't you tell me?" Tabitha's question was tinged with amusement.

"My mom got engaged just after you left. Then we came here for the summer and her fiancé said he never wanted to leave," Anna was twiddling a long strand of her fiery red hair around her finger, "Long story, short, we moved here."

"Well, that does make a long story short," Tabitha replied, "Life in the States hasn't been too bad. There was a bit of an adjustment period but I didn't mind it. Of course you know all about that. It's the same when you move anywhere and I told you all about it. I actually got an offer from one of the teachers for an exchange trip to Africa, but my grandfather died and I had to come here instead."

"Your granddad died? That surprises me. He always seemed so young,"

"Cancer, and he was in his late seventies," Tabitha answered.

"I lost my aunt to cancer. I know how it feels," Anna laid a hand on her shoulder.

"I didn't even know he was sick until he was already dead. We had a… falling out last Christmas about the circumstances surrounding how I came to be. The whole family watched; it was terrible. Then Mom yelled at him for acting like I wasn't really part of the family and we left. I hadn't spoken to him since," She wound her hands in her lap. The sun had long since disappeared beck under the clouds and the air was cool and moist.

"Oh,"

Tabitha could feel Anna's eye resting on her uncertain expression. If it was Nate, she probably would have had no trouble mentioning it but, this was Anna. Down to Earth, best friend, no nonsense Anna.

"What is it?" Anna asked, clearly concerned.

"I… It's nothing to worry about. I'm just feeling a little out of sorts at the moment. I'm sure I'll be back to normal once all of this calms down," Tabitha didn't make eye contact with her friend. So long as she wasn't looking at the person, she could lie rather well.

She could still fell Anna looking at her intensely for a few more moments and then the feeling was gone.

"Well, I'll see you again soon I guess. I have to get home before it rains."

Tabitha watched her childhood friend get to her feet and look down at her knees again, regretfully. She knew that her reluctance to relent had been what had driven the other girl away and she hated that she'd lied to her. Sighing, she too rose from the steps and made her way down the street, determinedly keeping her gaze on the ground. Unbidden tears had sprung into her eyes for some unknown reason, and she wanted to be home before she truly broke down. The past few weeks had caught up to her finally and the haze that had worked like an anticeptic on a cut had worn away leaving her emotions sore and battered. She felt raw and inconsolable.

Night found Tabitha in her room, a book in her hands. It was written by one of her favorite authors and rightly so. Sometimes she found herself dreaming the she was one of his characters and that she was free to roam his world as she pleased. No matter how vivid her imagination was, she knew that becoming part of a book was impossible. Books could provide shelter and fantastical worlds, but not homes for their readers.

She turned out the light and closed the book around the bookmark. Lying on her side, Tabitha did not sleep for a long while. Occasionally a tear would slip down her face, dropping smoothly and silently onto the pillow beneath her head. She had always prided herself on how well she could keep her emotions secret from the rest of the world and crying was never something she wanted to do. In fact she hated it. Tabitha hated the way her eyes would burn after her tears were gone and how easy it was to begin crying again. Tonight though, the young woman was going to allow them. Her pain had been exposed, and now she wanted to dissolve into some other world, to hide from everyone in place she could call her own.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Tabitha's cheek hurt when she woke and at first she assumed that she had fallen asleep on her fisted hand. Opening her eyes, she was assaulted by a glare that should not have been in her bedroom. She blinked a few times to readjust to the light and saw, with quite certainty that she was outside. Overhead a bright sun lit the area around her. She moved her hand and felt it slide over the edge of something into nothing but air.

More time passed and nothing changed. The air was still as sweetly scented and real as she had noticed it was when she had first come to. Rubbing her eyes again and pinching herself in the arm to make sure she was really awake, she sat up. Tabitha's hands pushed her into a slightly raised position and her body groaned in protest from the rough night it had had. Glancing at the ground where she had been sitting she realized with certainty that her previous thought of having felt like she'd slept on a particularly lumpy rock were completely accurate. She folded her knees and stood.

Tabitha felt the world spin around her a bit as she saw just how high the rock she was sleeping on was. What was more, it didn't seem as though it was attached to anything. The sweep of vertigo that touched her when she realize this, forced her to sit down again or fall over the edge, to the ground thousands of feet below.

From what she'd seen while she was standing, the ground was blanketed by a forest. She seemed to be over a valley and between two mountains. To her right a tall monolith of dark gray rock soared in a spire-like fashion toward the clouds. To her left a smaller, more rounded mountain rose from the earth, still higher than her prison but much smaller than the one to her right. It had no tree line but instead, it seemed that rocks poked from the forest like teeth. They almost looked like buildings, but there was something wild about these deep gray rocks that made her wonder what exactly had caused them to form as they had.

Tabitha crossed her legs and folded her hands in her lap thinking. She had to still be asleep; it was the only explanation. Still, with everything that had happened lately, with the sights she'd seen recently, she almost believed that it could be real. She didn't normally smell in dreams, nor did she truly hear or feel. She definitely didn't ache like this. Her back hurt like she had the flu and the longer she sat here the larger a headache she got. Licking her lips, she crawled to the edge of the slab of rock. Stretching out on her belly so that most of her weight was on the rock, Tabitha leaned her head over the edge just to be certain she was in fact, floating in mid-air.

She leapt back from the edge. Below the rock there was indeed, nothing. While that in and of itself was frightening enough, it was not what had caused her to leap back from what could possibly have been the longest and strangest fall of her life. She'd seen creatures below her that could not possibly exist. They had to have been massive to appear so large, so far away. She was certain that there were wings on them. They seemed to have vast wingspans much larger than anything she'd ever seen.

Despite the fear in her, she thought about this and curiosity overcame the overwhelming stifling her terror had given her. Tabitha rolled back onto her stomach and inched toward the edge of the rock again. They had not been part of her imagination. Above the forest, floating on the breeze were three, huge forms. It was too far away for her to make a definitive analysis of what they truly looked like but she could tell that their wings were not reptilian, which would indicate a stereotypical dragon creature, but were rather feathered. And in beautiful colors too. They looked like they had fur coats from how the light of the morning shone on them. It was a soft shine rather than the harsh reflection one would get from a harsher substance.

One, with wings of a brilliant blue flew toward them, an orange pelt flashing brightly in the sun and then others circled around it. Within minutes, it seemed his wing strokes were less determined and rather droopy. It seemed almost, depressed or embarrassed and flew over toward the tall spire of a mountain. Tabitha watched it with increasing interest as its height drew level with her own. She saw that in addition to the orange coat, the creature bore black stripes along its body, like a tiger. She chewed her lip for a moment and considered calling out to it but then realized that an animal this size coat eat her for an appetizer.

Looking at the general shape of the creature, she saw that it had four thick and strong legs. Now she looked closer, the body looked very much like that of a tiger, a very large and probably very strong tiger. Tabitha watched him rise higher, above her perch and kept very still, not wishing to make herself an obvious target. He landed in a crevice on the mountain, somewhat more gracefully than she'd expected. The massive cat disappeared into the shadows and recesses of the mountain and she was left to wonder.

Tabitha turned back to her observations of the one below her. Rarely did she have the time to just watch something. Through this oddity, she found a certain amount of resolve come over her. Animals had always liked her and she found solace in them. Toddles, she remembered, had always been so calm and peaceful if she was around, though her mother always said that he was really and energetic dog with far too much spunk to be controlled. A smile twitched at her lips and she came back out of her wandering thoughts a bittersweet feeling, leaving and itch at the back of her eyes and a hollow clenching in the pit of her stomach.

Below her, the "cats" tumbled in the air, seemingly swooping toward the trees below with deadly efficiency. Each one seemed to do the same thing, almost like a drill team practicing. She knew well enough that that was anthropomorphizing and she shouldn't be doing it, or at least her science classes had taught her such, but she felt that they were so real, so human in their actions and so precise. Tabitha pulled a strand of her long black hair out of her face as she looked at the "cats" below to receive an unimpeded view.

Out of nowhere, a streak of silver crossed her vision. To her it seemed that she's imagined it, but as she looked, the creatures flying below moved into a position that could be referred to as alert and attentive. She almost missed the lighting fast movements as her eyes faltered for a moment. The three creatures flying below darted forward with their wings propelling them. The speed was unmatched by anything she'd ever seen, granted she'd never watched the dive of a falcon, but in her mind this was even faster than that. She heard a great song-like cry, echo through the valley and then all was silent.

For several moments Tabitha remained absolutely motionless, barely daring to breathe. And then she heard the sound of wings. They were so quiet that it seemed like white noise, but somewhere inside her, she knew that it was not a sound in the whispering of the wind, nor in the creaks and groans of the mountains that surrounded her. Atop her floating fortress, she knew without a doubt that the sound was wings, soft and down and yet a fast and lethal weapon of speed. She felt a shiver flow through her at the sound and then the silver creature, bird, she now saw, sped skyward with strokes as fast as a humming birds. Then, without warning, it dove to the rock beside her and lighted gracefully.

She looked at it, unsure what to think, and it seemed to observe her with a great solemn black eye unlike any she'd ever seen before. Veins of white ran like miniature rivers through the iris and then pupil was slitted like a cats. It let out a crooning cry and then pushed its plumed head under her hand, which she'd raised in anticipation of danger. The gesture of trust surprised her profoundly.

_Well met, daughter of the moon. _A voice entered her mind.

Tabitha jerked her hand away, not conscious of how the motion would move her. It took her few moments to realize what was happening and by then, it was too late to do anything. One moment her arms were pin-wheeling to hold her onto the rock and the next, there was nothing but air beneath her and nothing to stop that speedy descent she was making. Everything seemed to turn to slow motion. She could see the ground approaching, but it was like a dream. Haze coated the sides of her vision and nothing was focusing properly. Nerves and adrenaline spiked her brain into high speed thought so that everything seemed insignificant. She knew it was going to be over soon and yet she felt as though she was flying, floating, peacefully as a leaf on the breeze.

Her shoulders felt as though they were being pulled from their sockets and he whole body seemed to stretch impossibly as she came to a sudden halt. Trees were still a few hundred feet away and she was hanging limply, her descent having left her with nothing but a cold, shaky, sweaty fear. Her cheeks were red and her eyes bloodshot from the wind that had so recently torn into her.

"You're safe child," a voice like the rumble of falling rocks spoke, almost not a voice but a culmination of sounds that formed into human words, "Rest, you'll be safe."

It was all she could do not to shut her eyes that very moment. The adrenaline had gone away and without it, her body was exhausted. Tabitha considered her position seeing only that she fallen from one death and into another. Her body shuddered and then went limp. Even if she had wanted to move she couldn't have. Without any other choice, she closed her eyes and surrendered to the welcome embrace of unconsciousness.

If it was possible for a person to feel as though they had never slept, this was how she felt. Tabitha's arms and legs were leaden and her head hurt terribly. If she had doubted at an earlier time, that she'd had the flu, she was now perfectly certain. Chills ran through her and she shuddered outwardly.

Glancing around, she found that she was in a well furnished bedroom. The small window opened out over a glistening, dew moistened forest. Mist rose around the room, giving the air a filmy, insubstantial quality. Tabitha cast her hand out the window stiffly wondering whether the weather had made her so stiff and achy. Her upturned hand was hit by something and she grasped that something in her palm, clenching her fingers around it to prevent it from rolling away. She dove back onto the bed as the bird from earlier swept soundlessly through the window. With a swallow she looked at its silver plumage and spider-webbed eyes wearily.

_You needn't fear me, _the bird crooned softly to her inside her head and she drew away from the invasion of privacy, _I shan't hurt you, nor shall the others. You are far too important for that._

Tabitha stared at the bird in disbelief. It rubbed its long, pointed beak along her hand all the while gazing at her to see her reaction.

_It would be polite for you to answer me, _the bird answered.

She leaned back against the headboard and felt warmth begin to spread throughout her body. Studying the bird she saw that it was slender and graceful and yet there was something completely deadly about it.

_Well as you do not seem to be particularly conversational, I shall have to carry on this exchange to myself. _The noises in her head paused for a moment and then began again, _You have a strong countanence but a fearful mind. There is no need to be so frightened I am merely a chol a gaelach. A moon dove in your speech. Open your mind to me, I must see your thoughts and know that you are pure of conscience._

Tabitha stared at the bird, an eyebrow cocked. There was no way she was going to let this bird into her mind. It was a bird for God's sake! A bloody bird. She shivered again and sighed. She was feeling a fever in her.

A creek interrupted the silence of the room around her. She turned her head to see that the over-wide door at the head of the room was opening. Tabitha licked her lips nervously, feeling that they were dry and crack.

"Solamhas, why did you not inform me she was sick?" this was a man.

As Tabitha looked at him she smiled. He seemed young, but bore the scars of an old man. His hair seemed to be becoming prematurely gray and his eyes were likewise colored. The rest of his hair was an extremely dark brown. He moved toward her across the room and she noticed that with each step he took, a sword upon his hip swung against his thigh. She blinked a haze that had come over her eyes away and took in his apparel. A tunic hung in graceful folds of silk over a cream under-shift that covered his arms. The sleeves were gathered at the ends to keep the cuffs as the base of his hands. The blue tunic was embroidered with silver and a horse, which she assumed was his symbol. He wore deep gray pants that were gathered at the knees to fit into his boots of dark black/brown.

He came closer to her and she saw that not only did he have the one long scar covering his cheek, but he also bore many others. The backs of his hands were lined and worn with overuse. She looked up at him, her blue meeting his gray and he frowned slightly, as though something was troubling him. She watched him stop through the fevered mist that floated through her head. Tabitha looked down at her hands, hot and damp against the covers of the bed. Her own appearance startled her.

She was no longer wearing her jeans and sweatshirt but instead she was dressed in a soft cream nightgown. To her embarrassment, she realized that she wore no bra, nor anything else underneath the shirt. She was colder than cold and yet she felt so warm as well. All she wanted to do was climb under the covers and hide from the world. Her headache still grew steadily worse.

Tabitha felt a cool and touch her forehead and then felt it draw slightly back in surprise. Looking up she saw that the man had finished his journey across the room and was now at her side. Shivering, she drew herself away to look into his eyes. She would not trust a man she had just met, no matter how kind he seemed to be.

"Solamhas, how long has she been this way?" he addressed the bird without hesitation.

_Melcior reckons she was sick when he fetched her out of the air, _The bird, Solamhas, answered calmly.

"Three days, you blasted bird! If I'd known she was sick I would have been healing her and yet none of you told me! I am the most adept healer this city has at the moment!" the man seemed enraged and the slightest bit offened.

Tabitha found the exchange vaguely amusing though in her mind she found it hard to justify arguing with a bird. She bit her lip only to remember when it was too late, how brittle they were. The metallic taste on her tongue told her that she'd drawn blood. She gagged on the flavor, the argument between the two other occupants of the room drifting to the back of her mind. Her hand flew to restrain her hair as her stomach lurched without warning and she was forced to empty its contents over the side of the bed.

Tabitha sat back, the bitter taste of bile still in her mouth. Her vomiting session seemed to have recaptured the attention of her two visitors. While neither seemed to care very much for each other, both seemed to have significant positive feelings toward her.

In the last three days she hadn't spoken but now she would try, if anything, to get the taste of bile from her mouth. At first she only croaked but then she managed her request.

"Could I have some water?" Tabitha's voice cracked and groaned like the spine of a book being opened for the first time in many years.

Both looked at her in poorly suppressed surprise. The man seemed the last to recover but the first to speak, much to her express relief. Solamhas, was soon to follow in his comments, most of which involved her not being mute.

"Solamhas, make yourself useful and find that wandering page of mine. Tell him to fetch a bucket of water and bring it to the infirmary quarters,"

_I'll show you useful, _the bird quipped and turned to the man, lifting its tail.

"There is no need to be crude. Now go on," the man ordered the bird away.

With a squawk of indignation, the bird lifted itself up and flew out the open window. Had Tabitha not had a fever, she would have felt the rush of warm air that was pushed in by the silver bird's wings. She leaned back against the pillows on her bed watching the man before her move around the room. A healer, he'd said he was. She wasn't sure whether she knew what a healer was. Usually a healer was more than just a doctor, but a person who held the power to heal. If that was the case then she would just have to relax and trust that all or none of this was real. She opened her mouth to speak, just as he began talking.

"How did you come to be upon that rock?" his first query.

Tabitha studied him for a moment and then sighed. He had to asked the one question she had no idea how to answer. With a scrape, the man pulled a stool up beside her bed so that he could rest while he waited. One of his fingers traced the line of the lower portion of his scar. She noticed that though he had a thin line of stubble, the place where the scar entered into it was bare. It must have been a grievous wound to leave such a terrible reminder.

"I don't know," Tabitha answered, her voice still guttering like a candle in the wind from its disuse, "One moment I was sleeping in my bed, and the next, I was on that rock," she paused as she watched his face darken, "I'm not crazy."

"No, dear child I do not believe you are," the man assured, "If it would not be too prying, where did you come from?"

Tabitha nodded slightly, considering his question. True, it was a bit prying, but he seemed to truly desire an answer.

"I come from Stonehaven, Scotland," Her eyes wandered over his face for a reaction. For a moment, shock crossed his face but he hid it instantly.

"What is your name?" he demanded, an urgency and need in his voice.

This new tone surprised her but she kept it hidden and replied in an even voice now starting to warm to being used again.

"I am Tabitha McKnight," she answered, confidently.

The man's reaction to this statement was not what she had expected. His eyes began to blink rapidly and under his breath he mutter, "so much like her mother." It was barely more than a whisper, yet Tabitha heard the phrase as loudly as if someone had shouted in her ear. With new thoughts, it seemed she was able to unclog her brain from the fog of the fever and fully awaken. All of her senses seemed completely open.

"Are you certain, that's your name?" he asked.

Tabitha glared at his face trying to see whether he was joking. He didn't appear to be and that bothered her. Why was she so important that she be, or maybe not be, Tabitha McKnight.

"Yes I am certain that is my name. It is what the rest of the world has called me for the last fifteen years. My mother named me that," she answered, "You knew her."

Her last comment was a statement, not a question and yet she wanted him to answer. She felt another chill and the clarity that had opened her mind to though was gone as she shivered.

"Forgive me of this forward gesture, but it is necessary," he grasped her hand in his, "Yes I knew your mother," a warmth began to spread through her veins, "She was beautiful and extremely powerful. I've never met someone with more power." More warmth spread through her and she began to feel the fever leaving, "You are not actually ill. You have what is called the Between Sickness. People who travel the boundaries between here, and our sister world, the World Beyond, will get it in varying degrees. You have a severe case of it caused by the different laws of nature. Going from our world to yours for us, is less difficult than you coming to ours. The laws do not change much other than we lose most of our abilities. And in any case, only some have those abilities. Here you are traveling from one world to another and I must say, you have discovered your true Light of Darkness, your Solan Daeras. In your world, I believe they call it magic."

It was her turn to look surprised. With this newest revelation, came understanding. Tabitha leaned back on her pillows, for she had pushed herself up in surprise, and the realization that, when her mother had become upset, she'd lost control of something that she'd been hiding for years. Her mother, her own mother, had powers. She studied the man before her and then opened her mouth to speak.

"Who are you?" she asked, or more demanded.

"You have no need to use an imperious tone with me,"

For the first time, he used a sharp voice when addressing her and she was subdued by this tone. Just by saying this he made her realize that he was not someone to be trifled with. Her hand slid from his grasp but the warm she'd been flooded with didn't go away. Her eyes flicked to his hand for a second and saw that a pale gold light surrounded them. He'd been healing her.

Tabtiha closed her eyes half-way, feeling exhaustion from her so recent fever, seeping into her. Her body was no longer fighting off the overheating temperature.

"I apologize," she adopted a more formal fashion of speaking, "Could you please tell me who you are?"

"You have your mother's air of command," he laughed, "Do you wish to know who I am or what my name is?"

Tabitha glared at him, feeling her temper flare slightly though she knew she was still sick. Her rational mind gave in to her anger for a moment but then relaxed again.

"Both," she answered smoothly.

"My name is easy so I'll start with that but the other answer will take a very long time," the man settled farther back on the stool as though relaxing but contradicted the movement by crossing his arms over his chest, "My name is Sir Williff, arch duke of Aeleenah. I was born in the Northlands so my home is there."

Tabitha nodded taking in the information respectfully. She'd not expected him to be so highly ranked. Men of his level were always described as without flaws, yet he was covered in scars, marred on every in of visible skin. This brought another question to her mind, but she thought that she would wait for him to start explaining everything to her first.

"I will not divulge the more grotesque details of my life but I shall give you my background. If I am going to train you then you shall have to trust me."

"Train me?" Tabitha asked, her eyes widening, with incredulity and amazement.

He continued, "I was born and raised in a peasant town. The town was raided by barbarians from the countries beyond the northern border of the kingdom. My family was slaughtered and I was taken to Teirmaen to be raised as a servant. The King, then he was a prince, approached me one day and tossed me a stick, thinking only of how he would be able to show his friends how good he was with a sword. He had not expected me to have been trained. The city's rogue had trained me in fighting and I was even a thief for a while."

"The young prince, naïve as he was, engaged me in combat. I fought him and gained the upper hand. In a matter of moments it was over and he lay sprawled on the ground, breath hard, his sword forgotten. I laid down my stick and offered him my hand. The other companions he had were laughing, and despite his previously lowered view of me, I defended him, determined to prove that there was nothing that he'd done wrong besides underestimate me. For a while I went back to my life as a servant and thief, but then one day as I was caring for the horses, and the prince approached me asking me to come with him."

"I began my knight's training at twelve years of age, skinny and lanky and without any prior family of nobility. For most, I was a subject for ridicule and personal amusement. I silenced them with their defeats at my hand and soon exceeded even the most trained because of my roguish methods. Then my Solan Daeras came into my body and I began to lose control. At sixteen I was a volatile person and one most tried to avoid. Though publicly I have long given up my rogue life, up until that point I was still accepted in their society. I became too much of a liability and the Rogue king turned me away instructing me that I was not to deal with them again."

"Now, stripped of my prowess in the rogue society and largely avoided by everyone, I went about learning to control my powers through travel. I crossed the entirety of Aeleenah learning my solan daeras. I learned from strong masters, the secrets of a successful mage. I am best at healing and not at fighting when it comes to my powers, as you have seen," Sir Williff paused thoughtfully and Tabitha worried he would stop his tale. She was greatly enjoying his life's story.

"When I returned to the castle three years later, I met the prince. We had, at one point been close friends, so much that he asked his father to pronounce me the successor of the previous arch duke, whose one love had died without producing any heirs. A woman managed to drive a wedge between us. Your mother, split one of the closest friendships I've ever come upon, driving us apart like and axe to a skull. She had so much raw power and possessed a strength none of us had seen before. She had a bond with the natural world that drew all of the men in the castle to her. Your mother, charmed and enchanted them all without realizing it. Her wish was our command, we were her slaves, but it seemed to us she had eyes only for Robert. By the time I returned, though it was not outwardly so, they were deeply involved with each other in all senses of the word, she sixteen and he, twenty. Lara of the Laurels, she became known, Lara of Victory, Lady of the Land. Then something happened that split them. I can't say exactly what, for she never told me, but I know they were split. Lara and I had become good friends over time and I eventually loved her. I was devastated when she left."

"She was gone for slightly more than a year and then returned. Much to my surprise, she was accompanied by you. You were very tiny and very silent. Most everyone here thought that there was something wrong with you but, your mother thought that you were the most perfect child in the world. She loved you, and probably still does, more than life itself." He stopped to look at her, his blue eyes hesitant, "Have you heard what you want?"

Tabitha stared at him calmly and calculatingly. Her mind was racing with all the information she'd just gained. Williff, in her mind, was so interesting and so solemn a figure. He was very expressive without being pushy and very caring without being smothering.

The man reached a hand forward and placed it on her forehead, "Your fever's coming back; I should let you rest," the man's hand glowed for a moment, putting to rest a faintly growing headache and then he moved it over the floor to clear away the vomit.

A boy tottered into the room carrying a wooden bucket of water. He was small, though obviously older than he looked, given the way he carried himself. She estimated probably fourteen. His hair was a mousey brown and his eyes colored likewise. Her wore a plain gray tunic with a small insignia on the back of the shoulder and a white undershift that looked as though it had seen better days. Tabitha smiled kindly at him and he very nearly dropped the bucket her was carrying. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Williff's eyes twinkle and a smile twitch ghostishly onto his face before falling away again.

"Thank you," she commented to the boy graciously when he set the bucket down next to bed.

"You- You're welcome, mi lady," he replied shakily.

"Move along, Aeolfell, your task is done and you still have much to do in the library," the duke ordered kindly to his page.

Tabitha watched this exchange with interest. In her world people did not act in such a way. She felt the headache that Sir Williff had dispelled only a few moments ago, creeping back across her head from behind her eyes and she closed them. With the decrease in light, the headache lessened. She sighed with a slight amount of irritation at her misfortune. The door at the head of the infirmary creaked shut.

"You have you mother's gift," Williff whispered in her ear with amusement, "I think the poor, unsuspecting boy's heart nearly beat its way out of his chest. Could you hear it?"

Tabitha nodded without opening her eyes. She could feel her fever returning more reticently now. A shiver passed through her and she pulled the blankets up over her. Though she saw the humor of the revelation, she could not bring herself to express any actual amusement.

"How long will it take for my body to become used to the conditions here?" she asked warily.

"Anywhere between three days to a week from the time the eyes are opened," he answered simply, "I'm afraid there's little I can do for you, but to easy your discomfort."

"Shit!" Tabitha swore without thinking.

"Your mother was particularly partial to that curse as well," Williff commented most unhelpfully.

She glared at him through her closed eyes for a moment and then leaned farther into the pillows. Tabitha started to dissolve into sleep, almost before she was comfortable. Her eyes drifted shut and she heard the door close, just before she slipped into a deep sleep.


End file.
